As you descend from the Magma Vault the stairs come to a small, level chamber of dressed stone blocks. To the north, the stairs curve around the Emerald Spire where it protrudes from the western wall as they descend. But to the east stand bronze double doors sealed with red-and-black wax and hung with lead seals suspended from rotting silk ribbons. Runes are engraved around the door frame.
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Deno'thar is a human male carrying a long spear with a prominently displayed banner of the open road.
Greetings fellow Pathfinders, I'm Deno'thar, a maestro who tries to put forth the best foot that we can for the society. I throw a few spells, including making my allies move much faster and usually those around me both excellent morale and are exceptionally competent at using their weapons. it seems a group of experience pathfinders returned from the emerald spire and told us that there is another staircase leading down, and that they'd need a more experienced team of pathfinders to descend it, and find out what lies below. I am recently returning from a mission where we helped the Hao Jin Tapestry and restored its magics, so I guess I qualify as such a pathfinder.
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Coreleus steps up his horned head and too many teeth gleaming an arrow in his prehensile tailand another in his left claw as his eyes glram in the dark. Too loud and slightly unwashed the monk says I am the property of Marlenus of Cheliax on loan to the Pathfinder society for his amusent and adventures. I am at peace with my place and the meaning of the bow in connection to all that is. My last adventure battled dark krakens in the deep. Most amusing for my watching Master and his betting friends.
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A tall, dark green skinned, tusked, male half-orc wearing only a well worn breech-cloth held in place by a fancy belt strides down the stairs and stops before the other Pathfinders. A few pouches, bags, and a homemade holy symbol of Nethys (painted more black than white) hang from his belt. He carries a greatsword that rests on his shoulder.
"Hi other finders of paths. I Karn. Karn sent by God of Destruction to break people and foul magics. Karn do that so goodly he given ever greater things and creatures to break as reward." Karn reaches into a pouch and produces a finely crafted journal embossed with the title A Taste of Golarion. He flips to a blank page and jots down a few quick notations before closing the journal and returning it to the pouch.
Karn peers at the runes carved around the door frame and translates them outloud in perfect Taldane (a.k.a. Common) as he reads. "Karn think this place gonna be fun."
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A tall man whose skin is dark from too much sun and his hands gnarled from years of work with ropes walk in with a stagger. A flask barely held in his hand. Several rapiers hang from is hip, buckler on his left arm, and a long duster. Concealed within the duster is all manner of vials.
The man adds some drops to his eyes, chases a pill with whiskey, then packs some chem between his gums.
"Okay, I have done somethings that make me a notable pathfinder though they are mostly fuzzy. Let me go in front of the group, I'm good at...stuff...you know finding stuff and talking...stuff. Sorry once the 'medicine' kicks in, I'm better."
Rubbing his eyes the man says,
"I'm the Professor. The name is obviously self-evident."
The professor bows unstably. then says without looking at the door,
"By the way, the door says, 'Beware! Within lie the remains of the dark heretic Yarrix, cursed be her name. Enter not her tomb, lest you join her restless soul in its banishment in the spaces between the worlds.'"
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A stern looking man enters, accompanied by a large armored dinosaur. The man’s face is completely covered by a sinister-looking mask that does not appear to even have eye slits. His armor is of the Hellknight fashion but, curiously, it is constructed from shiny scales rather than steel, dragonhide in fact. He peers about the room, as if looking for something from behind his impenetrable mask, and then appears to sigh dejectedly before removing the head-covering to reveal a remarkably ugly face.
”I am Otto O’Read, a signifer of the Order of the Nail. And this – “ he pats the dinosaur – it is in fact an allosaurus – on the head – ”this is Allison. Hail and well met, I suppose."
Otto is a rather serious fellow, fastidiously dressed, and continually checking to make sure that all the buttons on his tunic are lined up with the edge of a ruler. Talking with him, one soon forms the impression that he would much prefer to be at home, tending his garden, and that he comes by the adventurer's life rather reluctantly. "If you don't keep after them, the fields will become clogged with weeds! And the plants themselves, they run amok, this way and that, it doesn't matter if you have planted them in neat and tidy rows - they have no discipline. That's why they need me, to lend a guiding hand, to straighten them out. The natural world, left to itself - bah, pure chaos - we druids must impose ourselves, and by the very force of our will, even the plants, even the animals, all their wildness can be tamed, must be tamed. Then all will be well. At least for the moment, but we must remain vigilant, for their wildness ever seeks to find expression, and to escape from our guidance. Bah!"
Otto lets out a long sigh. "And there I would be, at home, tending the garden, if not for that cursed dog! ... I don't suppose you've seen him?" He gives a description of a missing dog that is so generic that it could easily describe almost any small furry quadraped. "Yes, it's true, I promised my mother that I would find her dog, no matter what it took, and that I would not return home without him. How was I to know that it would become a quest of not days or weeks, but years? Poor mother. I wonder if she is even still alive, or if I will ever see her again, but I am a man of my word, and I will tread every inch of Golarion - and beyond - until I find that dog. He is a very bad doggy, no discipline at all!"
"But there you have it. One does not choose the quest, one's quest chooses you. I SHALL find that dog, if it's the last thing I do... Maybe he's hiding somewhere in this "Emerald Spire." I do wonder about my azaleas though," he sighs wistfully, "do you think anyone has been watering them?"
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Deno'thar replies to Otto, " Locate creature is a spell currently beyond my capabilities, but I do know a wizard who could probably cast it. You should talk to wizards of our stature in the society. You could also just ask another signifier, but if you characterize him as a bad dog, as far as I understand the order of the nail, you may never see him again...
He agrees with the professor," Yes, we all have our own ways of dealing the issues that both the day and the dungeons bring. I prefer song, but magics do help. He casts two spells to embolden him as an aware hero.
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The Professor a little more clear headed says, "I will keep an eye out for you dog and I'm sure someone is watering your Azaleas."
Once I his chamicalials fully kick in he speak more clearly, "Ok, let's see what we bring to the table, and decide how we would like to proceed. I calculate would take me less that 18 minutes to sweep the entire are for traps. So I shall look for the group."
When the party attempts to open the door, they find it to be locked.
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“ Let’s give the professor a shot at it, with me inspiring him, I’m sure he can pick the lock...” Deno’thar tries to control himself but chuckles a bit,” Couldn’t help myself... Many bards can inspire people to be exceptionally competent at common adventuring tasks, but that is not in my abilities. That said, Master Zey taught me a spell that can snatch victory from the clutches of defeat. Somehow I think the Professor’s a self inspired sort of a man who will succeed on his own.”
Though the lock might have been sturdier in when it was new, time has weathered away at its components and the Professor slides the lock aside, allowing the party to open the doors.
Beyond the door lie a series of passages, with a main passage leading ahead to another set of doors and a series of smaller passages on either side.
Ahead of you stand two armored constructs. An eerie green light glows from seams in their dingy-looking armor. As the door opens, they turn to face you, raising guisarmes in your direction.
The temperature plunges dramatically.
As the temperature plunges, all of you feel your muscles begin to freeze up and tighten uncomfortably.
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"Let's make space so they come to us and we can all hit them. I'm much too old to be brave."
The professor begins lecturing on the key points that he knows.
The professor begins lecturing on the key points that he knows.
Creature is sickened on a hit (no fort save so I think it works on constructs oddly).
On his turn:
Swift action study(+4/+4)
5ft step to make room.
The party prepares for the fight ahead while the constructs advance on them with their guisarmes! Professor Kaldosian deflects the blow with his rapier but is unable to retaliate at that range. Toshiro's heavy armor deflects a poorly aimed attack.
Allison steps forward 5' and attempts to maul the Red construct.
Coreleus kills the first construct and Karn, Professor Kaldosian and Toshiro team up to kill the second.
The Professor's liquid ice freezes up the brown mold, destroying it.
The wide corridor is finished in dark, glossy stone. The walls feature prominent stone ribs every two feet, and meet in a pointed arch twenty feet above the floor. Narrow passageways lead north and south from this hall, and there are large bronze double doors at each end.
The side hallways are decoarted with brightly painted murals showing human and inhuman forms dancing, fighting and performing rituals. Down the hall is a gleaming bronze door. Shorter intersecting hallways link the longer north-south passage with perpendicular passages.
Professor Kaldosian soon realizes that both sides of the main corridor are trapped with a magical effect.
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Professor heals himself up most of the way (-1). Then uses his wayfinder to detect magic.
(Clear Ears, HeightA, heroism)
"I wonder if I can disarm them."
(10ranks +3 class skill +5 dex +2 tools +4 trapfinder +2 mutagen, +2 heroism,
"Thank you for guarding me Coreleus.
Professor Kaldosian quickly concludes that it is not reasonable to disarm the trap. It is a Looping Passage trap, that will keep its victims walking in circles for up to 8 hours at a time before ejecting them back into the area they came from, much the worse for wear. Teleportation techniques as well as entering another dimension is sufficient to escape, though the Professor suspects that a true master could possibly escape the trap without the aid of direct magic. The trap is safe enough if it is simply not entered, however.
Given the nature of the trap, he suspects that the trap expends further than he can currently see.
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As he walks a little further and see that the areas essentially form squares he guesses.
"If you go down there you would walk those squares endlessly for hours. It is beyond me to disarm them which is strange. I don't see a way through so I think we should move ahead and see if we can circle around and bypass them."
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Karn peers curiously at the hallways that the Professor points out and listens intently to his explanation. "Right, so mark as dangerous and move on." Karn pulls out a tattered piece of parchment and a bit of charcoal. He draws out the beginnings of a crud map and marks out the trapped area. He jots in a quick notation in the margin about the nature of the trap that reads: Magic, Endless walk, Bad.